Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-10
AN HBIRESS OF REID DOG.
BY BRET HARTE.
Copyrighted by Houghton. Mifiin e. Co., and
published by arrangement with them.l

published by arrangement with theml
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The first intimation given of the eccentricity
Of the tertator was, think. in the spring of
1854 He was at that time in possession Of o
considerable property. heavily mortgaged TO
one friend, and wife of some attraction. on
whose affections another friend hold an in.
numbering lien One day il was found that
be had secretly dug, on caused Ia be dug.
deep trap before the front door Of his dwell
ing, into which few friends, In the course
of the evening. casually and Familiarity
dropped This circumstance. slight in itself.
seemed TO point to the existence OF "a certain
humor in tho man, which might eventually
get into literature. although his wife's lover
a man Of quick discernment, whose leg was
broken by ths fall-took other views It was
some weeks later that. while dining with Ger.
tain other friends of his wife, be excused him.
self from the table to quietly reappear at the
front window with a three-quarter inch n.y.
draulic pipe. and a stream of water projected
at the assembled company. An attempt was
made to take public cognizance of this; but q
majority Of the citizens of Red Dog, who
were not at dinner, decided that man had
right to choose his own methods OF diverting
his company. Nevertheless, there were some
hints of his insanity: his wife recalled other
acts clearly attributable to dementia; the
crippled lover argued from his own experience
that tho integrity Of her limbs could only be
secured by leaving her husbands house; and
the mortgage. fearing further damage to
his property, foreclosed. But here the cause
OF all this anxiety took matters into his own
hands and disappeared
When we next heard from him he had, in
his wife aud property, and was living alone at
Rockville, fifty miles away, and editing
newspaper. But that originality he had dis
played when dealing with the problems of his
own private life, when applied TO politics in
the columns of The Rockville Vanguard was
singularly unsuccessful An amusing exag
geration, purporting to be an exact account
OF the manner in which the opposing candi
date bad murdered his Chinese laundryman,
was, regret to say, answered only by as
sault and battery. a gratuitous and purely
imaginative description of a great religious
revival in Calaveras, in which the sheriff OF
the county-a VIGOROUSLY profane skept,c-
was alleged TO have been the chief exhorter,
resulted only in the withdrawal of tho county
advertising from the paper. In the midst Of
this practical confusion he suddenly died.
1t was then discovered, as a crowning proof
Of his absurdty, that he had left will be-
queathing his entire effects to freckle faced
maid servant at the Rockville hotel. But
that absurdity became serious when it was
also discovered that among these effects were
thousand shares in the Rising Sun Mining
company, which day or two after his de-
mise, and while people were still laughing at
his grotesque benefaction, suddenly sprang
into opulence and celebrity. Three millions
At dollars was roughly estimated as the value
of the estate thus wantonly sacrificed. For
it is only fair to state, as just tribute to the